the Cause of Nightmares
by Lucinda
Summary: A glimpse into the childhood of Severus, and a possible explanation why he knew so many hexes and curse so early.  Shortfic, and a bit of a crossover.


The Cause of Nightmares  
  
author: Lucinda  
  
main character: Severus Snape  
  
rating: pg/pg13  
  
disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to Severus Snape (property of JK Rowling) or Spike & Dru (property of Joss Whedon).  
  
distribution: Twisting, OADNT, Paula, Jen & Cat if they want, anyone else please ask first.  
  
note: This takes place a long time before he is a Professor. I started wondering why a beginning student would know so many hexes, and this came to mind.  
  
  
  
  
  
Severus knew that his father was one of the best potion makers in all of England. He heard it all the time, from the neighbors, from his father's customers, and of course, from his father. He could make almost anything.  
  
He would also sell his potions to almost anything, provided that he, she or it possessed either gold or something else suitably valuable to trade.  
  
Severus was peeking through the stair railing, having been unable to sleep. His mother had been telling him all about Hogwarts, the finest school of magic, and the place that his parents hoped he would go when he was older. It had sounded wonderful, with magical paintings everywhere, and moving staircases, and an enchanted ceiling. And house elves that kept everything neat and tidy. But he wouldn't be able to go for another two years.  
  
His father was talking to a couple. The woman had dark hair and a pretty dress of pale green that looked sort of like the pictures of his great gran as a girl. She stood with someone that had short very pale hair, dressed in dark clothing. Something about the couple made him nervous. Severus watched carefully as his father spoke the man, calling him something like Pike. It gradually occurred to him that his father was afraid of this pale man. Moving quickly, his father went into the other room to get something.  
  
The woman looked up, staring right at him through the dark house. "I see a little shadow of a boy... peeking where he shouldn't. Little snakeling, just like his daddy... Can I eat him up?"  
  
The pale man put his hand on her shoulder, a restraining gesture. "Dru... we didn't come here to eat a boy. We didn't come here to eat anyone. Remember the potion? The whole point of why we came here?"  
  
"Can't we just take a little nibble? He'll never notice that we tasted the snakeling..." Her face... shifted, eyes going pale and her teeth getting very sharp before she snapped them together with a clicking sound.  
  
"Dru, for the love of... We are not eating any little snakes tonight. We have a plan, remember? I'm not going to let you mess this one up." He sounded angry, but it was the sort of anger of a plan endangered, not anger on behalf of the potential victim.  
  
Severus just stared that the pair, feeling cold seep through him starting at his stomach, making his arms shiver and his legs go numb. His skin felt all prickly, like he'd had nettles poured over him again. That woman was a vampire... probably the man as well. His father was letting vampires into the house, endangering them all. This was very, very bad.  
  
Slowly, carefully, he stood up, edging his way up the staircase, still watching the vampires in fear. His father wouldn't keep him safe from them, how many times had his father said that he was a disappointment? His mother wasn't a very powerful witch, she would probably not be able to keep him safe. Which mean he'd have to try to keep himself safe from the vampires and anything else that his father sold potions to. But what if he didn't know what they were?  
  
A memory dawned for him, sitting in the library reading 'the Adventures of Justinian: Auror of Rome'. There had been books about hexes and curses, books on different types of scary things - hags, vampires, ghosts and ghouls. He would have to read those books, learn about the scary things so he could keep from being eaten. Fortunately he was a good reader for his age. And his fingers never shook as much with books as they did when his father told him to mix a potion.  
  
If the woman didn't manage to find him, if she didn't take 'a taste' of him, then maybe he could learn. Maybe he could master enough curses and hexes to get away, learn enough about the monsters to know what they were and how to stop them. He would have to be able to keep himself safe, and to protect his mum, because he didn't think that his Father would even try. Vampires in the house… it was like a nightmare.  
  
His father never learned about Severus' desperate course of study. He couldn't be bothered to know that his son was learning hexes, could identify more monsters and dangerous creatures than some grown wizards. The older Snape only knew that his son had started having nightmares, occasionally screaming in the night, waking everybody else up. He had tried beating the boy, tried all sorts of punishments to cause him to stop having the dreams, but they hadn't worked. In the end, he had a sound proofing charm placed on his son's room, to prevent the screaming from waking anyone else up.  
  
When Severus was finally able to start Hogwarts, he was delighted and relieved. Nobody could apparate onto the grounds to attack, and there were protections from things like hags and vampires built into the very stone. He'd read all about it in 'Hogwarts: A History', and it sounded much safer. Perhaps here, the nightmares would lessen. Perhaps here, he could find a place to belong.  
  
He was sorted into Slytherin, as his father had been. As almost all of his father's family had been. He could almost hear his father's voice echoing in his head 'A Slytherin does not wake screaming from nightmares.' Maybe if he studied very hard, he would learn a way to do what his father could not – grant sleep without dreams. Find a secret that would guard him from the nightmares. He could only hope.  
  
End Cause of Nightmares. 


End file.
